The Ecology of Hope
Written by Ted and coauthor Jora Young, The Ecology of Hope is a remarkably upbeat account of a number of communities where collaboration across factions and interest groups has led to breakthrough consensus on plans for achieving sustainability.
The Ecology of Hope (1997) recounts the stories of seven communities hoping to blaze a new trail of sustainability:
- the Menominee Indians of northern Wisconsin who pioneered a progressive forest management program;
- environmental restoration and biodiversity stewardship projects in Ohio and the Chicago metropolitan area;
- ground-breaking consensus in a highly polarized Californian logging town, and a rangeland-dependent community on the New Mexico-Arizona border;
- a unique plan to develop tourism yet preserve traditional lifeways on a small Maine coast island; and
- an ambitious experiment to protect world class coastal resources on Virginia’s eastern shore while promoting long-term, ecologically sensible commerce.
The authors weigh what has worked and what has not, and trace hopeful routes toward sustainable resource management applicable to communities everywhere.
What people said about The Ecology of Hope
This is a wonderful collection of stories that will truly lift your spirits. They tell of ordinary people going that extra mile to forge new and often difficult alliances in highly polarized circumstances. They are stories of courage, stories of people devoted to their places and determined to overcome the differences that separate. Above all, the are refreshing models for the rest of us to follow in healing ourselves and nature, to create truly sustainable cultures.
— John Flicker, President, National Audubon Society
We need good examples of how to revitalize rural communities according to an ecological world view. The Ecology of Hope carries some of these stories that describe small and modest efforts: exactly the requirement for getting something done.
— Wes Jackson, from the Foreward
Hope and Hard Times
Fifteen years after gathering information for The Ecology of Hope, Ted Bernard caught up with the communities again to discover their progress and see what a difference their collaborative conservation has made. Hope and Hard Times (2010) chronicles that journey: the successes, the speed bumps, and the remarkable tenacity and persistence of the partnerships and initiatives driving change during exceedingly hard times. Overall, community-based sustainability initiatives have proved resilient, despite the down-spiraling of the global economy and the looming problems of global climate change. Their quest points to the need for new perceptions of nature and of humankind, more guidance from nature, and less consumption and materialism. Lessons from the real-life struggles offer advice on how to live on pieces of land without spoiling them.
Offering hopeful roadmaps for other communities working toward a sustainable future, this book will appeal to community activists, natural resource professionals, educators, and environmentalists.
What people said about Hope and Hard Times
[Bernard] tells us where to find hope: Off the beaten path in the company of those who have shed ego for community and dedicated themselves to making their worlds sustainable.
— Jane Braxton Little, The Sacramento Bee
Intuition might tell us that ecological resilience requires community resilience, and vice versa. In this collection, Bernard shows how and why this is true.
— Thomas Princen, author of Treading Softly: Paths to Ecological Order
Author Ted Bernard 